A Exploration Of Immaturity
by LenaV
Summary: <html><head></head>Ordinarily, Sam would've never made a wish anywhere near the presence of a powerful supernatural entity. He has, though, and now the Winchesters must deal with the consequences. Which seem to involve a lot of child angels and even more baby demons. De-aged!All Of Hell and Heaven, set late season four.</html>
1. one

**1**

Ordinarily, Sam would've never made a wish anywhere near the presence of a powerful supernatural entity. To his defence, however, the thing did catch him off guard. Maybe if it had been any other day- not when he was still fresh from the last hunt, where the monster died but everyone else did too. Maybe if it wasn't three in the damn morning. Hell, maybe if he had actually had more experience with dream-walking, particularly with others walking into _his _dreams, he would be more careful. Maybe it was all because he wasn't heaven's golden boy, wasn't important enough to have an angel contact him by zapping into his head.

It'd didn't really matter why, though, but Sam didn't realize there was anything wrong with his dreams until the damage was done. He had dreamed he was sitting at one of the wooden tables at the library back at college. He used to sit there for hours, studying. He wasn't studying now: actually, he had a paintbrush in his hand and he was using it to draw a devil's trap on the table. He'd been using pastel red paint at the beginning of the dream, scooping it out of a plastic cup, but now the cup had blood in it, clear scarlet blood that spread unevenly over the wooden table as he smeared it on with the thick brush. The longer he painted, the thicker it became, until he could see little debris floating there, bits of organs and veins and dirt. He knew he had to finish the trap, but the longer he painted the smaller it became, painted walls collapsing on each other with that sort of logic that only made sense in dreams.

"Heya," Said a voice to his right.

He glanced up to locate the owner of that voice; a youngish man with grey eyes that sparkled jovially, plopping down in the chair next to his own.

"Hello." He said cautiously, putting down his plastic cup full of blood on the table.

"It's been a while, no?" The man asked, gesturing around them.

Sam raised an eyebrow, confused.

"Since you went here," The stranger shrugged, "Life was hella simpler then, yes?"

"Oh, yeah." Sam gave him a tight, uncertain smile. "Loads. Sometimes I wish I could go back. If heaven and hell left us alone, ever…"

"You want them to leave you alone, then?"

"Course I do," Sam was confused there'd be a different option.

"Power doesn't tempt you? You wouldn't want to find your own place in the chaos of armageddon, no? A profitable place?"

Sam must've looked a bit offended at the suggestion he'd want that, because the guy quickly backpedalled. "No? So you'd want heaven and hell gone, yes? All packed away."

"Well- I'd rather they'd just leave us alone. I guess I just want them to stop hurting our world."

"Harmless, then, no? You'd want them to be harmless?"

"Yeah, but, hey man, just dreams. Guess we're going to go with what they tell us to do. Not like they leave us much of a choice?"

But the man, the plastic cup, and the devil's trap were gone. Whatever. It was just a dream.

Sam woke up three hours later.

Dean was up already, grumpily making coffee. He said something like "good morning" and Dean mumbled back something that was probably some sort of curse word but he couldn't say which one. Sam snorted, amused. Maybe if they'd woken up a bit later, his brother would be his normal energetic self, but, as it was, Dean was definitely not a morning person. It was odd for him to wake up before Sam, but maybe that was simply the pressure of the looming apocalypse. Or maybe Sam was waking up later because of slipping out to meet with Ruby earlier that night. Which reminded him, where was Ruby? He really hasn't seen her in a while- sure she'd left him the flask of blood, but then she didn't pick up when he'd called and that was starting to scare him at this point. He'd tried to tell himself he was worried for his friend. Ruby was a big girl, though, and he knew her to be perfectly capable to take care of herself. If he was being perfectly honest, he wasn't sure if he'd be upset if something happened to her, if hadn't been for the blood. The last few days he has woken up craving it: he has rationed the blood in the flask very, very carefully, but it still wasn't enough, was never enough.

He's puzzled but also deeply grateful to discover that he doesn't feel that hunger right now. Any though of blood turned his stomach. He saved the half a sip in his flask until he mould need it, which he would happen.

Meanwhile, he microwaved a pack of crappy instant coffee and shoved a stale donut into his mouth. They were leftovers from yesterday's breakfast, when Dean had randomly decided he wanted donuts and driven out to buy some. Not the healthiest breakfast, but Sam was too lazy to look for something else. He decided he'd get a healthy lunch.

He pulled out his laptop to check on things before they set out to look for the demons. The previous day, they figured out who the demons were possessing, but tracking down and exorcising them was a different matter entirely.

He pulled up a news site on Chrome, checking for anything new in the "local" area or any signs of the apocalypse. The headline caught his eye, though.

"Holy…" He muttered, scrolling through the article.

Silently, Dean stomped over to look over his shoulder, his eyes widening as he began to read.

* * *

><p>"So... hundreds of missing people randomly turn up, claiming remembering being possessed by demons, or consenting to angelic possession." Sam summed up.<p>

"So what they're saying is, hundreds of angels and demons from all over just.. disappeared?" Dean asked, sounding as confused as Sam felt.

"And they left all of their meat suits totally unharmed. I mean, even the people that should be dead. Totally fine." Sam added.

"So I'm going to say, Andy and Melissa Walker are probably good now," Dean said, mentioning the possessed couple from the day before.  
>"Arnold and Melanie Watson."<p>

"Whatever. All I'm saying is, we better go check this out."  
>"Police station?"<p>

"Unless you've got a better idea,"

Sam didn't, so they made their way to the car and were at the station in about twenty minutes. Benefit of hunts in small towns, Sam supposed.

A scene was already unfolding when they arrived. A woman and man, both of them in their sixties, were being escorted in handcuffs into the back of the station.

"We're innocent," The man, a shorter guy with salt-and-pepper hair, kept saying, like a broken record, "Innocent, we didn't. Didn't do it. We're innocent. You have to listen to me."  
>"The black smoke," The woman, with dyed, curly blond hair and blue eyes that would have made her look like a grandma in a picture book if her purple dress and frilly white apron weren't stained with blood, added, "It did this. It took our bodies."<p>

Sam and Dean shared a look, turning to leave. They had seen enough to know what was happening. Just then, though, another police car pulled up, and an officer came in. He was leading two children in. Both of them looked mutinous, and had the definite air of runaways about them.

That wasn't what caught Sam's eye, though. The older kid, a girl of maybe eight with dirty blond hair and baby blue eyes, glaring at them as though they were solely responsible for the police catching them, was dressed in a dress totally identical to the one the woman (Melinda?) wore as she was brought in, which by itself was really strange. As he moved his eyes to the second kid, though, a boy around seven years of age, he swore he could see the boy's eyes flash black.

"Christo," Dean muttered next to him. He must have seen it too. They watched the children, expecting some sort of reaction, at least a flinch if not an attack, but there was nothing.

Sam motioned towards the door. Leaving was probably the best course of action if they wanted to avoid getting noticed by anyone currently working at the police station.

He slipped into the shotgun seat of the impala, brain going a mile a minute. This didn't make very much sense. He wasn't sure if what they were seeing was just the effect or maybe parts of the cause too. He really wanted a piece of paper to sort everything in his head out, about then.

"Think this is a seal?" Dean asked from next to him.

"Doesn't feel like one," Sam shrugged, "I've looked through some of the seals I thought the demons might want to break, and this doesn't fit well. Besides, the angels should know all of them, and it one them made all of the angels vanish, they'd warn us, right? I think the children might have something to do with it. There was certainly something off about them. And, to think about it, I did see a lot more local news about children _found_, instead of missing… Oh."

It was suddenly all clear to Sam.

"Oh what?" Dean sounded annoyed that his brother reached the conclusion before him.

"The demons are the children, Dean. Something turned them. That's why the girl looked so much like the Melanie Watson- because she was. The demon must've possessed her last!"  
>"That makes no sense, Sammy. Why would that happen? Besides, how was the officer still alive after dealing demons? Why didn't it do anything when we said Christo?"<p>

Sam sighed. He had liked his theory, but he supposed it probably extremely unlikely.

"Alright," He suggested, "Let's stop by the motel and grab my laptop and then go to the library to research?"

Dean huffed but complied, pulling into the motel parking lot. Sam suspected the sole reason his brother listened to him was because he was planning on snagging and finishing that last donut, but whatever.

As they turned into their hallway, Sam saw two kid-sized shapes in front of the door; a taller boy and shorter girl, talking animately about something or other.

Normally, he'd pay them no heed, but as the most recent wave of weird crap involved kids, he did, indeed, notice them. Especially the fact that the boy was leaning on their door and wearing a long, beige coat.

He hoped that they're are just a weird coincidence in the Winchesters' weird lives, but those hopes were shattered when the girl turned around to look at them. After a half a second, she grinned, waving her arms in the air in a way similar to how a cartoon character would do so.

"Hi, Sam!" She yelled at the top of her voice.

This was going to get very complicated very fast.

**A/N; This is mainly a result of being unable to sleep at three A.M. and then editing the following couple of days. However, the plot bunnies are still bugging me, so this will likely be continued soon. **


	2. two

**a/n: Thanks to my awesome beta reader, Misha, for proofreading this!**

"So you're telling me that all of heaven and hell is… " Dean gestured at the two kids sitting on the bed in front of him. "like, y'know, that now?"  
>"Uh-huh," Said Castiel. He looked a whole lot less intimidating when he was no older than seven, his dark hair flopping over his eyes and his voice way, way too squeaky.<p>

"'As far as I know," Ruby agreed. She, too, looked far less shark-like at the age of five with one of her front teeth missing. "But I really dunno, I wasn't there."

"Okay, uh, how much do you guys even remember?" Sam asked, and Dean realized that he should've asked that earlier.

He didn't miss the fact that Ruby and Cas glance briefly at each other before replying. They would have to reverse this quickly, because those two conspiring? Not good.

"Less than all of it." Castiel said uncertainly.

"Like, I dunno, maybe, like, the main stuff? Like, I dunno, things that mattered to stuff," Ruby guessed. She was fidgeting, her feet kicked up into the air every once in a while. She was clearly uncomfortable with the situation. Eventually, her eyes made their way to the ceiling and she mumbled, "I dunno."

It was then that all the questions about whether they were children mentally were answered. Dean figured they should've known something was really since the two started liking each other, anyway.

Castiel looked more sure of himself, but only slightly. Dean realized that Sam and he were probably pretty close to strangers to them now.

Sam must've had the same thought. "How did you get here, anyway?"

"Oh. I was going here either way." Cas replied. "Had a message. Don't remember what, though. Then something went all wrong. I'm not sure what. I managed to fly the rest of the way."

"You can still fly?" Dean asked.

"Yeah. Except my wings got all wrong and I don't like that."

"... Got all wrong?"

"They manifested. Physically." Something moved under the too-big trench coat (it seemed to be the only part of Cas's clothing that didn't shrink with him), and Dean could swear he saw black feathers there for a moment.

Woah, okay. One problem at a time.

"What about you, Ruby?" He had already noticed how hard it was to hate her when she's a kid. She'd be kind of adorable, actually, if she wasn't an untrustworthy demon. Maybe he could forget hating her for now and simply hate her twice as hard when everyone was back to normal. Okay, that was a weird thought. Whatever.

"I don't got anything that can man-mean-meaney…"  
>"Manifest." Castiel corrected.<p>

"Yes. That. Manifestate." Ruby nodded. "Nothing did that. I was here for a while. Followed Sam. He was with his brother."  
>She said all of that as though both Sam and his brother weren't sitting in front of her.<p>

"Then I tried to drive but I dunno how anymore. And my feet wouldn't reach the pedals. So I walked but kinda got lost so only got here when it was already sunrising."

"You can't say sunrising." Castiel interrupted.

"Can too!" Ruby claimed, pouting.

"Nuh-uh." The angel hissed, obviously taking this very seriously. "You can't!"

"Can, can, can! Watch me; sunrising, sunrising, sunrising, sunrising, sunrising!" The demon yelled, sticking her tongue out childishly at the end.

"Not if you want it to follow simple rules of grammar." Cas said stubbornly.

"Yes, it does!" Ruby claimed.  
>"Okay," Sam ventured bravely, "Break it up."<p>

"Who's right?" Ruby asked Sam belligerently, not listening at all.

"Uh," Dean wished he had a camera, just so he could get a picture of how trapped Sam looked by the question. "You're… both right?"

Cheater's option. Dean decided to save his brother, though, because he didn't like the two fighting any more than Sam did.

"Okay. Whatever this is, do you think it could be related to the seals? Wait- do you guys even remember anything about seals?"

"Yes!" Cas said. "They're like sea lions. Semi-aquatic mammals. They've got fins, belong to the order carnivora, suborder caniformia, and…"

Apparently, he was still a walking encyclopedia.

Ruby interrupts. "And they perform in the circus, balancing stuff on their noses and it's cool! And the babies are all fluffy and I wanna hug 'em so bad."  
>"I mean the apocalyptic seals." Dean explains somewhat drily. "Can you tell me anything about them?"<br>Blank looks.  
>"There is sixty-six of them?" Cas tries finally.<br>"The end of the world is somehow involved." Ruby puts in, helpfully.

"Okay. Right." Dean glances at Sam, who motions him to come over. He does, and lowers his voice to speak with him, relieved that neither the demon nor the angel seem to care. "Alright, so we need a plan of action."

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "What the hell are we doing with them?"  
>"Well, we can't just leave them, right?" Dean sighed. "We're practically stuck with them still we reverse this."<p>

"Yeah. I guess. If we're staying here, we've really gotta get another room. You take one kid, I take the other. There's no way I'm putting up with the two of them the entire night." Sam said, then added quickly, "I call Cas."

_Call the quieter child, why don't you, _Dean thought with annoyance. "I meant more long term plans. This seems to be all over the place, so should we stay here or retreat to Bobby's to research? No way he's gonna be pleased with us, but it's probably better than trying to make them stay in a motel room all day. I don't think kids like that. And no way, Ruby was your girlfriend and thus is totally your responsibility."

"I'm not sure how much they're kids, Dean." Sam said, not really answering Dean's question. His brain did seem to go off tangents a lot. "There's a couple of possibilities I can think of."  
>"Possibilities?"<p>

"Well, it could simply be that something just thrust them into different vessels and took away some of the memories. They're confused and smaller, possibly being affected by childish emotions, but still, in essence the same beings."

"Yeah, that's along the lines of what I was thinking happened."

"I'm not sure how much this lines up, though. If you look at Ruby, she's nothing like herself, and, well, Castiel isn't much like himself either. So, I thought, demons used to be human right? So what if what ever it was… reset them, in a way? I mean, children are supposed to be blank slates, right? So maybe, they take Ruby's soul at the age five, add some memories into the mix, and put it all into a younger version of her vessel? So, I'm guessing that the angels had a less pronounced blank slates, but the Castiel and Anna of a thousand years ago should be nearly complete different people than Cas and Anna that we know now."

"So, basically, what you're trying to say is that you think either they're just them, looking like kids, or they're literally kid versions of themselves?"  
>"Yeah, basically."<p>

"Crap, okay. So what do we do now?"

"It's only, like, three hours of driving to Bobby's. You're right, it'll be much easier to deal with them there, and he probably has way more books on the topic than the small town library anyway," Sam said. "Can you call him?"  
>"No way he's gonna be pleased with this. You call him." Dean complained, tossing Sam's cell phone at him.<p>

Sam rolled his eyes but, knowing to pick his battles, he dialed Bobby's number.

Dean turned away, watching Cas and Ruby interact for a bit. Blank slates; well, as weird as that idea was, it made sense. Cas was, well, far different from what Dean has come to expect of the angel, but Ruby was the one who had changed so drastically that he couldn't see a single sliver of her previous self. He knew what made a demon; broken pieces of a soul smoothed down- worn down- like broken glass in the ocean until they made a twisted sort of picture, a kill or be killed desperation, decades of clawing your way out of the pit only to be knocked down, over and over again… A sense, one that he was pretty sure Sam didn't have, because as much as his brother could pick up on things like that, he hadn't been to the pit, told him that this was gone now. Ruby, as weird as it was, seemed to have been stripped down to be a girl; a small, and very human one. He wasn't sure what that said about Castiel.

"No, they don't know either. They don't seem to know much at all…" Sam was saying into the phone, "I think Cas still has wings. He said they physically manifested. No- no, we didn't look yet… I don't know about Ruby… Yeah, okay, I know. Thanks, Bobby."

Dean raised his eyebrows at his brother.

"He says to inform you that he isn't a daycare. And that we're idjits." Sam said.

* * *

><p>After the first hour and a half of driving, Dean was ready to murder someone, and Sam seemed to be only marginally less frustrated. Cas, thank god, had fallen asleep within the first twenty minutes, but that still left them with a bored five year old ex-demon.<p>

"I need to pee." Ruby informed them, and continued to ask, "Do witches fly on brooms?"  
>"No." Dean replied curtly, knowing it was better not to ignore her completely.<p>

"Like, never? Has any witch ever?"  
>"I've never heard of any real witch flying using brooms."<p>

"Oh. Hey, is Cas dead? I think Cas is dead." Ruby sounds mildly worried when she makes the announcement. "Caaasss, are you dead?"

"He's just asleep." Sam says tiredly, glancing over his shoulder at the angel.

"Are you sure he isn't dead? It would suck if he died. I like Cas. Why is your music so shouty?"

Dean begun to suspect Ruby had childhood ADHD or something. Ugh. "My music is awesome, thanks."

"So awesome music is shouty? Do the singers think they gotta yell? Aren't they supposed to sing? That's why they're called singers, right? Are they confused?"  
>"No, kid. Welcome to mullet rock."<p>

"Okay. Can we pull over now? I really do need to pee."

Dean sighed, but maybe he could get Sam to go into the gas stop with her and then he can enjoy at least two minutes of relative peace. He pulled over at the nearest exit, stopping at a gas stop in the middle of nowhere. There didn't seem to be any kind of settlement near by, which made him wonder where the workers lived, but whatever.

To his surprise, Sam got out of the car without Dean needing to ask. Dean figured he wanted rabbit food or something.

Ruby made a fuss in the back, shaking Cas's shoulder to wake him up. The angel blinked, looking confused, before he hissed, "Let me sleep, Ruby," and curled up further into himself. They were really like a cat and a dog. Though now that Dean thought about it, did angels need sleep? Maybe baby angels did. Or something.

Ruby and Sam were back ten minutes later. Sam had a bag in his hand (which turned out to contain a pack of healthy chips, a granola bar, two packages of the squeezable "no spoon, no mess" applesauce, and, praise the whatever entity actually existed, a pack of crayons and children's activity book). Ruby sat in the middle seat in the back instead of her side of the car so that she could use Cas as a pillow while she colored. The angel didn't seem to mind, so Dean didn't say anything about it.

The rest of the ride was the normal; nothing to look at, but the best music ever turned up loud enough for Dean not to be able to hear his own thoughts. It was quite nice, actually.

**a/n; Hope you liked! If you did, please leave a review. They make me write faster. :) **


	3. three

**3**

They arrived at Bobby's at five. They hadn't pulled over to have lunch since the gas station, which, okay was probably very irresponsible with two kids in the car, but Dean figured they were probably fine. He wasn't sure Cas had to eat, anyway, and Ruby had eaten both the applesauce packets and split the chips with Dean.

Cas still hadn't woken up, which kinda worried him at that point, and Ruby had gotten half of the activity book finished. She'd favored the green crayon, which was a stud at this point, while the rest remained nearly completely girl had also been using Cas as a pillow for the better part of the drive, so the two were tangled together at that point.

"Are we at there now?" Ruby chirped, propelling out of the car at top speed. "Wake up Cas, we're there! Cas!"

The angel blinked blurrily, stretching and carefully taking in his surroundings.  
>"We're there." Runy informed him unnecessarily.<p>

"I see." Cas nodded seriously, picked up the plastic bag from the gas station and carefully collected the crayons and scattered coloring pages into it. Grabbing the trash with his other hand, he slowly followed the girl out of the car. He glanced at Dean uncertainly, as though expecting him to explain what was happening.

"Okay, right, can you guys try not to do anything too weird at Bobby's?" Dean asks.

Ruby looked confused but nodded anyway and Cas appeared mortally offended at the suggestion he might do anything deemed "too weird". Something moved underneath the too large trenchcoat in a slightly disturbing fashion. Well, this was going to be ...interesting.

Bobby greeted them at the door, looking even more annoyed at them than usual, which was impressive. He took in Cas, who looked mildly sleepy and a bit bored but mostly just confused, and Ruby, who was grinning and bouncing on the balls of her feet, sighed, and opened the door, letting them in.

"I made a few calls," He said by way of greeting, "And you boys are in a real mess."

When weren't they?

"Yeah?" Dean asked, focusing on not letting Ruby touch the beer on the table.

"Yeah, Dean, did you think that whatever was able to overpower every single goddamn demon and angel ever without leaving any trace of itself was going to be a piece of pie to take care of?" Bobby asked somewhat drily. "That's not all I've come up with, though."

"No? What else?" Dean replied.

"Wait," Sam cut in, "Bobby, do you mind if I use your kitchen? We forgot to do lunch. That's probably very unhealthy, especially for children under ten. I thought I should make sandwiches. "  
>Bobby muttered something about "irresponsible idjits" but nodded. Dean wasn't sure if he should help, but Sam seemed to know what he was doing, so he pulled a beer out of the fridge, taking a long gulp. Bobby sat down next to him, finishing his own. He grabbed two glasses from the table, filling both of them with holy water from his flask. After a few minutes, they were joined by Cas, who sat on the floor, examining a piece of cheese stuck in between two slices of bread doubtfully, and Ruby, who seemed to have wanted everything on her sandwich and had a spot of ketchup on her nose. She downed one of the glasses of water happily, while Cas didn't touch his. Finally, after the sounds of cleaning up the kitchen were over, Sam came to sit next to Dean.<p>

They sat in silence for a couple seconds. Dean saw the unease that radiated from Bobby's entire being as he examined the kids. Dean knew his hunter senses were kicking in.

"They were both our allies in the war," Sam said. Dean knew he'd noticed the look, too.

"And they don't even remember it," Dean added. "Listen, whatever they were before, they're just kids now."  
>"Or just very good at pretending," Bobby grumbled, before changing the topic. "What did you say happened with Castiel's wings?"<p>

This conversation was not over. Really though, Bobby was right, that was another thing they totally forgot to consider and that could lead to potentially disastrous situations.

"I don't know, we didn't-" Sam looked sheepish,\.

"You did, too. You shoved it under the bed for me to deal with, that's what you did." Bobby replied with annoyance. "Fine, let's deal with it."  
>"Cas! Come here!" Dean barked, making the angel jump, nearly dropping his (mostly uneaten) sandwich. He looked kind of freaked, which could probably be explained by Dean's tone of voice. He sighed. Kids were difficult. "It's okay, you're not in trouble. We just need to talk to you for a second, kay?"<br>Cas nodded, still a bit wide eyed, and set his sandwich carefully on the table before coming over.

"You said your wings materialized, right?" Sam asked. At Cas's nod, he continued, "We need to see them, okay?"

Cas hesitated, looking at Dean with what looked half-accusation, half-confusion. Dean stared back, not sure what else to do. Finally the angel doubtfully shrugged of the coat, then flexed his shoulders, giant black wings stretching around him.

"Whoa," Ruby breathed from behind them.

Dean could see what she was talking about- he'd been expecting angel wings, white or maybe black, but Cas's wings were definitely more birdlike, dark grey with streaks of white, brown and about every shade of green imaginable. Funny, because Dean had always thought that if Cas was the angel of a color, it would be blue. Though maybe all of the angels had green wings?

The boy looked sheepish under the attention for a couple of moments. Finally, he folded all ten feet of his wings back, pulling the coat back were actually really compact, Dean noticed, if somehow managed to fit them under the coat.

"Right." Bobby grumbled."Please don't tell me anklebiter over there has sprouted devil horns."

"I didn't!" Ruby sounded like she couldn't decide whether to be defensive or disappointed. "I don't think I got anything that can… can… y'know, that word."  
>"Alright," Bobby said, carefully, eyes not leaving her. "Anything else that we should know about?"<p>

"What?" Ruby cocked her head to the side.

"Well, you got over the salt lines fine and holy water didn't do nothing, but I'm still not sure there ain't more to ya. Try to move the papers on the table." Bobby directed.

Head still cocked to the side, Ruby walked up to the table and picked up the papers, moving the a couple of inches to the side.

"No," Sam explained. "I think what Bobby is asking you to do is try to move the papers _with your mind." _

"Oh." The girl nodded. She squinted at the papers for a few seconds. It looked like she was focusing very hard. They didn't even flutter, so she stretched out her hand, directing it at them in a fashion that Dean had frequently seen demons use when they were using telekinesis.

Nothing happened. Dean heard Ruby make a frustrated noise, eyes narrowing further. The lights in the room dimmed, and her eyes flashed.  
>There was still no movement from the papers, but the lights brightened again and Ruby wobbled dangerously. Dean guessed that she'd have fallen oven if Cas hadn't grabbed her by the shoulder, steadying her. He frowned at Bobby and Sam in a way that suggested they killed puppies for a living and Dean decided that they should probably leave both of the kids alone for now. There was really no good reason to keep riling them up, and besides they still weren't sure how much either remembered. Things would be exponentially more difficult if they decided that Sam and Dean were the enemy.<p>

Dean, Sam, and Bobby end up discussing the situation in the living room while Cas and Ruby build a fort out of old metal and grass in the scrap yard, yelling something about digging trenches to each other.

"Witch?" Dean suggested. "This seems to pretty close to their M.O."

"No way," Bobby replied. "No witch's gonna be that powerful. Maybe if a very, very powerful demon -and I mean, Lilith powerful- backed them, but no demon would."  
>"Trickster god." Sam guessed. "This certainly seems like a lesson type thing."<p>

"Again, I don't think they've got the mojo. The angels have gotta have put up one hell of a fight, and this thing took on the entirety of heaven. Maybe most of hell, or a couple of angels would be within a trickster's power, but…" Bobby trailed off.

"So whatever it is we're dealing with, it's bad." Dean summed up. "Like, the devil level bad?"

"Well, actually," Sam said, "I've been thinking. And maybe it's not."  
>"Not what?"<br>"Not bad, Dean. No demons, so who's going to carry through with the apocalypse?"  
>"Are you suggesting what I think you're suggesting?" Dean asked.<p>

"Yeah, I am. Maybe we don't need to reverse this."

* * *

><p>By the time they all went to bed, Sam had Dean almost convinced. His brother thought too much, Dean decided, lying on his back on the couch and staring up at Bobby's ceiling. The entire day had an element of surreality that, while Dean still reacted to the situation and attempted to fix the problem best he could, had prevented Dean from actually comprehend what had happened.<br>Now that the day was over, he was suddenly struck with the thought of, _oh crap, I've got to figure out what the hell to do with a demonic five year old child and seven year old kid with wings. _There was no way he could deal with that kind of responsibility. He could never deal with responsibility. Like Finn the goldfish in sixth grade. Or Cassie. Lisa. Sam, goddamn it. It's been shown over and over again, Dean messed up everything he touched. He couldn't be trusted with kids. His dad had trusted him with something as fragile before, and look where that left them. Where that left the world.

An irrational part of him was still sure that they needed to turn everything back to the way it was, apocalypse and all. There was another voice in his head, though, one that sounded uncannily like Sam.

_Really? _It questioned, disbelief lining every word, _You'd rather have the weight of the world on your shoulders than watch two children? _

Okay, that was logical. But whenever he closed his eyes he could see Ruby standing, small body tense, eyes flashing, hand stretched out in the exact same way as Sam's had always been when he was using his powers. When Dean's mistakes caused the apocalypse.

_Well, _the voice intoned, stubborn in a Sam-like way, _then maybe this is your chance to fix things? Have you thought about that?_

Dean had. He wasn't naive enough to think that, though. There was never a chance to fix things. Or maybe there was, but Dean just blew it and everything went to hell. Every goddamn time. He wondered absently about the rest of the angels. Did all of them grow wings? From what Cas said, he'd gotten the feeling that it had only happened because he was flying, but he could have been wrong about that. Maybe there were hundreds of children randomly appearing all over the globe with wings. Maybe humanity was going to dismiss it as a weird mutation and find homes for those children.

Or, far more likely, hunters would take care of the problem and no one would ever know, and, as much as he wanted to think otherwise, he knew that people with no knowledge of the supernatural would be unlikely to react well. He imagined people would want to know what makes an kid angel tick. The thought of Cas (as in, the seven year old version) strapped down to a lab table, wings being cut apart occurred to him at that point.

He wondered if he'd have thought of that before hell.


	4. four

**a/n; Well, here is. The nest chapter will probably be up quicker than this one was, I had difficulties writing this one. Hopefully it's okay, though! Please, please, leave a review letting me know what you think! **

Both Cas and Ruby woke at six AM the next morning. Dean, who was trying to sleep in the living room at the time, heard them moving around the kitchen. When he was sure the noise wasn't going to stop, he dragged himself out of bed to find them seated at the table. There was a sandwich exactly like what Sam had made yesterday (Dean could swear that the ingredients were in the same order) in front of Ruby.

"Did you make that?" He raised his eyebrows, gesturing to the sandwich.

"I did." Cas said, "Ruby said she was hungry."

Ah. He should've figured. "Sandwich is not proper breakfast food. You can eat it for lunch."

He took the plate, putting it in the fridge, and considered his options, knowing that Cas would most likely remember and copy it. Cereal was probably safest, but he didn't think Bobby's house has seen cereal at any point in the last twenty years, so…

"Okay, I'll make scrambled eggs." He said, pulling out a pan and a couple of eggs.

Ruby was fidgeting, bouncing on the balls of her feet and humming "Back In Black", clearly not too interested in what was happening. Castiel, however, stood stock still, taking in what Dean was doing with the same kind of undivided attention he'd given the seals. The resemblance to his older self was suddenly far more noticeable.

"Okay," Dean said as he turned on the stove, "Always be super careful with fire, okay?"

"Super careful. Yes." Cas nodded.

"Actually, don't use the stove when me or Sam aren't there." Dean decided.

"It's Sam or I." Cas said with accusation, and then added, "May I touch it?"

"Touch what?" Dean asked, confused.

"The fire." Cas motioned to the flames.

"No! You absolutely can not touch the fire. You never touch the fire. Do you get that?"

"Yes." Cas looked kind of freaked out by Dean yelling, but it was important the message got through. "I absolutely can not touch the fire. I never touch the fire."  
>"Good. Did you get that too, Ruby?"<br>"Yep!" Ruby grinned, looking happy to know the answer to his question. "Touching fire's bad, cos you'll burn your fingers and it'll hurt. Fire does that."

"It doesn't, though," Cas's eyes were open wide and he definitely sounded creepy now. "Fire cleanses you and makes you good again. Fire helps you see."

"Right, _no_, no it doesn't." Dean said quickly. "Cas, where did you hear that?"  
>"Naomi said." Cas was still transfixed by the orange and blue flames.<p>

Dean set down the pan and broke a few eggs over it before asking, "Who's Naomi?"

Cas shrugged, visibly uncomfortable. "I don't remember. "  
>Whatever had come over him was gone then, the fascination with fire replaced by intent focus on Dean mixing eggs. Okay, then. Dean finished cooking the eggs, piled them on three plates and handed each Ruby and Cas one plate each. He left a bit so that Sam and Bobby would have no reason grumble about not being included or some crap.<p>

Sam thundered down the stairs as Dean reached to get himself some seasoning out of the pantry.

"Morning," He said way too cheerily. Dean supposed he could see why, with the apocalypse possibly not looming anymore, but couldn't quite make himself feel the same way about things.

"Good morning," Cas said, sounding like he wasn't sure that was the correct response.

Ruby said something they could make out around a mouthful of eggs.

"Ruby, why are you eating with your hand?" Sam asked. "Dean, can you get some forks?"  
>"I made breakfast, Sammy, you get them forks." Dean replied, just to be contrary.<p>

Sam rolled his eyes, stalking into the kitchen and grabbing the utensils and a napkin. By that point, Ruby had already eaten her eggs, but she did use the fork to finish what Cas didn't want, so Dean called it a win.

Cas and Ruby ended up working through the activity book together at the kitchen table ("Look, no, you color inside the lines and use more than one color." "But I don't wanna!" "Fine! Use your stupid green crayon to do the maze, _I'll_ do the coloring pages!") until Bobby came down to have breakfast and shooed them off to the living room.

The next half a day was spent researching and arguing with Sam. The second part was especially bothersome because Sam's argument made sense and Dean's didn't. In the middle of a shouting match, Bobby's phone rang. That wasn't unusual, but it made Dean jump and Sam shut up. Both of them knew better than make noise when Bobby was on the phone.

Naturally, both of them made their way to the phone room to eavesdrop on the conversation, but by the point they got there, Bobby was already hanging up.

"Yeah, I'll ask and call you back." He put down the phone and turned to the brothers. "Got a job for you boys, if you want it. Over by Minnesota. It looks like an open and shut case, but definitely needs a group of people. There's a hunter there already, and she asked if I knew anyone who could provide backup."

"Yeah, cool," Sam said, at the same time as Dean protested.

"I think we have our hands full right now," The elder Winchester said loudly.

* * *

><p>He wasn't sure why the hell he were driving to Minnesota an hour later. Sam was riding shotgun, Cas and Ruby positioned in the backseat.<p>

The cover story that Bobby and Sam came up with was that both of them were Sam's kids whose mother had gotten killed by a demon years ago and that now that Sam was hunting with his brother, they came along. The story was far too familiar for Dean to be comfortable with it, but that was probably Sam's point.

"We'll be driving past a town in a couple of minutes." Sam said suddenly.

"Yeah, and your point is?" Dean asked.

"There has to be Target, or Walmart or something there."

"What do you want in Walmart?"  
>"Nothing, Ruby and Cas can just wear their only sets of clothing during the duration of the hunt never brush their teeth." Sam replied sarcastically.<p>

Oh. Right. Dean turned at the nearest exit somewhat grumpily, still unsure of how he got roped into this entire thing.

"Where're we going?" Ruby yelled at the top of her voice.

"Be quiet," Cas hissed at her, "You keep waking me up and it is unpleasant."

He'd fallen asleep as soon as the car started moving this time, too. Dean was beginning to suspect he had a way of simply shutting himself off when there was nothing to do.

"We're going to get you guys some new clothes, okay?" Sam replied to Ruby's question.

"Why?" Ruby asked.

"Because yours are getting smelly,"

"I don't want new clothing!" Cas exclaimed. "I like mine best! Besides, it's already torn where my wings go."  
>"We'll cut holes in it after we buy it and you can wear a jacket."<p>

"But it'll still be stupid."  
>"Too bad."<br>"But Dean!"  
>"No."<p>

They stopped at a Walmart- everywhere had a Walmart. Cas and Ruby piled out of the car. The angel still looked very upset, while Ruby bounced on the balls of her feet, looking excited and happy about the new adventure. Kid had too much energy.

The attitudes continued to show themselves as they made their way through the store. Ruby decided that she liked every single color that ever actually existed, while Cas had frowned before settling on the minimal amount of things with black or white hues.

Sam had been for letting Ruby try everything on, but Dean had reminded him that they didn't actually have forever.

"Do you like this one?" Dean asked, showing Cas a batman tee shirt.

Cas nodded, not looking enthusiastic at all. Dean grinned and proceeded to talk Ruby into getting a smaller robin one instead of a sparkly long sleeved shirt with kittens on it. Sam looked amused by the entire thing. He grabbed something from one of the smaller racks and Dean glanced over his shoulder to see what it was.

"_Finding Nemo, _dude, really?" He asked.

"What's wrong with that?" Sam replied defensively. "It's for both boys and girls, somewhat educational, kid friendly, funny, and-"

"It's about two idiot fish that travel the ocean and get lost." Dean interrupted. "Besides, if we ever want them to have social skills of any kind, we should pick something where the characters are at least somewhat sane."

"What do you want to take, then?"

"_Transformers_?" Dean waved the DVD in the air. "Or maybe _Toy Story_."

"That's not gonna be interesting to a five year old girl."

"Oh, come on. Ruby will like it, she likes everything."

"What do you guys think?" Sam asked the kids. Cheater.

They turned from the shoe rack where Ruby was trying to convince Cas that shoes with descending roller blades were the coolest thing, like, ever.

"What do we think about what?" Cas cocked his head to the side.

"What movie do you want to get?" Sam asked.

"Movie?"

"Yeah, I thought you'd be bored sitting around the motel room all the time."

"Awesome!" Ruby yelled happily. She proceeded to pick up the fist CD on the rack, looking at the cover. "Cas, what does this say?"

"Cloudy," The angel read uncertainly, "With a chance of… meatballs?"

"What's it about?" The girl pressed.

"Uhhh…" Cas flipped the DVD case over, eyes scanning the back, before coming to the conclusion, "That's ridiculous."

"What's it say?"  
>"Apparently, an inventor makes it rain food items."<p>

"Oh, cool."

Ruby ended up not being able to decide between Despicable Me, Casper the Friendly Ghost, and Scooby Doo. Cas carefully studied every disk on the rack but didn't pick anything.

"I don't have to choose," He muttered after Sam asked him about it.

Dean raised his eyebrows at him. "You're the one who's gonna be watching them, buddy."

Cas tapped a disk with his finger, looking unsure if that was allowed. Ruby squinted at the cover. As far as Dean and Sam had been able to tell, she didn't read yet, so this was kind of a pointless thing to do.

"T," She announced triumphantly, pointing at the disk cover. Dean guessed maybe Cas had been showing her letters. "Cas, what's it say?"

"Totoro." Cas smiled, "He's someone's neighbor. You're supposed to be nice to neighbors."

Ruby got as excited about the movie as Cas, which was fortunate because Dean didn't want to watch Casper the Friendly Ghost. At all. This also looked like girly movie, he noted later on, but okay. Cas was obviously uncomfortable with choices, and if he wanted a girly movie- well, they'd watch a girly movie. Besides, both of the kids were obviously happy with the choice, and Dean saw Sam grinning as they went to checkout. And if he hadn't seen his brother smile like that in ages, well, that was one good thing about having the ankle-biters around.


End file.
